Another victim
There is a sheltered house near the village.
It’s one of those sanctuaries for people who can’t quite manage to live life on their own.
One of the residents has been coming to the village shop for years. She is a quiet woman. Her life and needs are simple. She likes to buy five cigarettes at a time because that is all she can afford and it is one of her little pleasures in life. The local shop has always obliged.
But this time was different. She didn’t understand why the shop couldn’t give her her cigarettes. She didn’t understand the law. She walked away empty handed with her head held low and a look of bewilderment on her face. She walked past a crowd of teenagers who were waiting for the bus. They were all puffing away with their packets of twenty.
Harney – May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits. And may you have nightmares for the rest of your miserable life.
They weren’t available in fives either so what’s changed?
There was no law against selling fives as far as I’m aware. Maybe the shop will do the decent thing in the future?
The powers that be always act like the reverends wife in The Simpsons: “Won’t somebody please think of the children”.
While all the time completely ignoring the disadvantaged and those who have worked and paid taxes their whole lives only to try to get by on a measly pension.
Shame really.
I have railed against quite a few stupid laws in the past, but this one is the worst I have ever come across.
Sometimes your posts make me cry.
But this is one of the times when surely reaching a hand out to someone like that woman could be done easily. Good karma makes the world turn. Buy a pack of 20 for her in the shop and tell them to dole them out 5 at a time when she comes in? Or tell me what shop it is and I’ll send some cash.
Blogging is good for raising awareness, but sometimes actions count more than words.
My posts make me cry too! But all for the wrong reasons.
Actually, I’ll confess – I didn’t witness this first hand but was told about it yesterday. There is another shop nearby that is slightly more sympathetic. Let’s just say their views on the latest law coincide with my own. Next time I see the woman, I’ll steer her in the right direction.
And I am a great believer in Karma. I must write about it sometime, if our K8 doesn’t get there first!
Grandad,
I had a run in with the Minister of Education this afternoon. She comes to our church fete every year.
“Congratulations, Mary”, I said, “even if I didn’t vote for you”
“Who did you vote for?”
“Labour”, I said, “as have generations of my family before me.”
“Labour, whave they ever done for you, or for your church, or for your school?”
She just didn’t get it. She and Harney and the rest of them think politics is about pulling strokes for their friends. Trying to explain that it was about doing the right thing, whatever that cost me would be completely lost on our pork barrel political system.
Ah! My friend Hannafin? I met her a couple of years ago.
I was at the zoo with K8 and the grandchildren at a special charity day.
Hannafin was introduced to our Sean [but not to me]. She asked some inane question and I gave her the answer. She obviously thought I was a fan butting in on the conversation. She looked at me as if I had just fallen out of a dog’s bottom and said in a very superior tone
“And who might you be?”
“I Sean’s grandad. And who are you?”
Heartbreaking.